Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

This is one of the funniest and most entertaining books I've ever read. And it has the most quotable quotes. Here's a sample: "The two things they all had in common were a cynical suspicion of politico-economic systems and a disdain for what passed for "patriotism" in the numbed noodles of the manipulated masses." "The old 'for reasons of national security' alibi. Heh! I'm a loyal American of long standing, but that doesn't mean I'm so flag-addled I can't recognize our favorite euphemism for 'governmental hanky-panky swept under the rug.'" "It had to be good because all around it, in every direction, as far as his eyes could see, the world was as empty and dry as a dummy's condom." "And what is your faith, exactly, Mr. Switters? What do you believe in?" "Umm. Well. I try not to" "You try not to believe?" "That's right. I'm on the run for the Killer B's." "Pardon? What have killer bees to do with?..." "B for Belief. B for Belonging. The B's that lead to most of the killing in the world. If you don't Belong among us, then you're our inferior, or our enemy, or both; and you can't Belong with us unless you Believe what we Believe. Maybe not even then, but it certainly helps. Our religion, our party, our tribe, our town, our school, our race, our nation. Believe. Belong. Behave. Or Be damned." "Man," said Switters, "that's a nasty-looking crowd of clouds over there, all rough and raggedy-assed and milling about, like a herd of white-trash shoppers just crawled out of shacks and sheds and trailer homes for the end-of-winter sale at Wal-Mart." "Switters, are you ever, on you own, inclined toward prayer?" He barely hesitated. "When I feel I'm in need of shark repellent, I try to pray. When I feel I'm in need of smelling salts, I try to meditate. I'm not saying that one's necessarily superior to the other -- both are capable of being reduced to a kind of metaphysical panhandling -- but if more people smelled the salts and woke the hell up, they'd find they wouldn't need to be fretting about sharks all the time." "Although he seemed highly intelligent, Switters could detect that his was an intellect of the shrewd variety, the kind that grasped facts and figures and understood virtually nothing of genuine importance; a well-oiled brain dedicated to the defense, perpetuation, and exploitation of every cliché and superstition in the saddlebags of institutionalized reality."

1) Plot (4 stars) - An ex-CIA agent is sent by his grandma to release a parrot in South America only to become infected by a strange illness whose cure can only be found in an oasis in the Middle East. It's a typical Robbins wacky ride, so don't expect an especially linear plot. That said, it still definitely has structure, mystery, and builds toward a resolution. 2) Characters (4 stars) - Switters is the cocksure adventurer. Intellectual, bold, spontaneous. He's a great guy to ride along with on a fun journey. However, there didn't seem to be much room for his inner growth. What did he want to become? Or was he already perfect when the novel began? 3) Theme (4 stars) - The central theme seems to be about the power of mindful playfulness ... that joy is wisdom. In addition, there were dozens of other little ideas to keep you pondering--from what makes someone human (humor, imagination, eroticism, spirituality, rebelliousness, and aesthetics, in case you were wondering), to what our inner awareness can show us vs. the awareness brought by ingesting certain plants, to the boundaries and powers of language. Robbins likes his theories, and he sprinkles them liberally in this work. 4) Voice (4 stars) - Robbins likes to enjoy himself, and it comes through in his prose. He doesn't just have a proclivity for metaphor, he turns those metaphors into little anthropomorphized stories that have a life of their own. When not supporting whimsical metaphor, his sentences are jaunty and smooth. A fine fine writer, but sometimes it felt like he might be nervous to convey any of life's sadder side--depression, loss, hopelessness. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want books filled with the sad stuff, just that it exists and perhaps it should get some page time to make things seem more real. 5) Setting (4 stars) - Robbins' descriptions of the various locales were always vivid and entertaining. However, the observational distance of his writing sometimes left me feeling a little distant from these places. 6) Overall (4 stars) - All 4s equals a 4. I'd recommend it. It was a lively, thought-provoking, zany ride.

I have been reading Tom Robbins since he first was published in the 1970's. He is a brilliant wordsmith, who can take a completely improbable plot, populate it with curious strangers, throw in some stunning and unexpected descriptors, wrap the whole thing in a tissue of absurdity, and make the whole seemingly disconnected mess gel into an enormously entertaining read. I hadn't read anything by him in many years and discovered "Villa Incognito" on my Kindle. I whipped through that one and am about a third through this novel, but I realized something very troubling. In both of these novels he is building an uncomfortable case in support of pedophilia. In both novels his middle aged male characters spend time in Thailand in the company of teenage prostitutes, and Robbins has made every possible attempt to normalize it. In fact he's painted being a teenage hooker with a pastel, watercolor brush that would have us believe that underage girls having sex with old men for money is a normal, healthy thing that is simply good fun for everyone involved. That, of course, is absolute BS. The kind of BS you hear from every pervert who is trying to get others to buy a ticket on their twisted train to justify their own behavior. It's sick, it's wrong, and it makes me wonder about Robbins' personal life. As in maybe someone with authority should be looking at him real hard. If you wonder why I gave him any stars at all it is because he is a fine writer. Nonetheless, he is possibly a reprehensible human being.

I went to see a performance of "Stomp" - and I sat there with this silly grin on my face throughout the whole exciting, creative and heart thumping event. It's the same silly grin I had on my face while reading this novel - and for the same reasons. I love the way this man writes - he makes me fall in love with language and ideas all over again. I am rolling in the language the way a dog rolls in a particularly pungent patch in the woods - and I am loving every redolent moment. I suppose those who feel that Mr. Robbins' work contains unbelievable plots twists are looking for something a little too linear in this surreal world - but as for me, the whole process of living itself is pretty darn non-linear and full of unbelieveable plot twists. I am particularly fond of the diatrabes on religion and advertising. I love the thoughts regarding Mary and the possible reason why she never mentions Jesus ..... "Jitterbug Perfume" caused me to shift into a permanent suspension of disbelief, and I was thrilled to get this booster shot.

Tom Robins is not a just writer, he is a magic maker. I read one of his first books “skinny legs and all many many years ago and was Hooked. I’ve read all his books, one better than the other.

OK, a quick confession: I read this on its original printing and was a bit let down. I thought _Another Roadside_ and _Even Cowgirls_ were superior in both story and style. But Tom Robbins admitted this is among his favorites and so I thought I'd give it another try. Now, I think TR is a great author and storyteller and I respect his opinions -- particularly on his own works -- but on this book we'll have to agree to disagree. Don't get me wrong. I still like the book and it's well worth a recommendation but it's far fro my favorite Robbins book (that would be _Another Roadside_). So, read and enjoy and don't forget TR's newest experiment in non-autobiographic storytelling, _Tibetan Peach Pie_.

Love Tom Robbins' writing - his inventive, cheeky style, irreverent sense of humor, sometimes surreal plots, and commentary on this world of ours. "Fierce Invalids" is no exception - except that the resolution of the story winds down a bit tamely (for Robbins). Still, I enjoyed this very much and will probably re-read it a good few times. It's up there with "Jitterbug Perfume", "Skinny Legs and All" and "Still Life With Woodpecker."

"'Do you suppose I might lubricate my cognitive apparatus with some squeezings from your swell vineyard?' 'But you haven't eaten your breakfast. Its not yet eight o'clock in the morning.' 'The wine doesn't know that. Wine only recognizes two temporal states: fermentation time and party time'" p.275 "I suspect theres a bid for empowerment behind it all, the power going to whoever seizes the right to coin names. In a reality made of language, the people who get to name things have psychological ownership of those things. Couples name their pets and children,...theologians name the deities that dominate our spirit--"Yahweh" changed to "Jehovah" changed to plain ol' generic "God"--kids name the latest cultural trends,...IN a way, we are like linguistic wolves, lifting our legs on patches of cultural ground to mark them with verbal urine as territory that we alone control. Or maybe not." p.231 "To what extent would a given quantity of catnip have affected quantum mechanics in Schrödinger's theoretical hatbox? and, Why was C selected to symbolize the speed of light when Z is obviously the fastest letter in the alphabet?" p.189

Great book, but the kindle edition doesn't have the section-markers that give the right rhythm to the different little nibbles of the story.

Whilst I must concede I am not a veteran book reader; a 23 y/o graduate who has read about 10-15 non-vocational books, I have to say this is the most expansive, entertaining and probably interesting book I've ever read. As a story, it has stuck with me for a while, enough to consider a tattoo of a parrot in a pyramid cage (you'll see). The characterization is very expansive. IMO the characters are believable whilst being somewhat ridiculous, which makes for a great, vivid (not too vivid!) image in the mind. This alongside the meandering plot makes it a real page turner. One bittersweet aspect of the book is the overuse of metaphors and similes - occasionally it's very difficult to keep on pace. However, some of them are really fantastic.

Book was delivered very fast

I bought a second copy of this book so I could go to work underlining and dog-ear-ing the pages in an attempt to recall, for future use, the hundred or more glittering concepts I discovered here. Our Hero, Switters, is a walking, talking, breathing, lusting, meditating symbol for the tesserae that make up the mosaic of the sort of life we all either embrace or deny in every moment. He is a pacifist CIA agent, a pragmatic mystic, a part-time adventurer and full-time romantic, and though captivated by the idea of innocence and purity, he lusts after his teenaged stepsister and ultimately finds her affection returned in the most delightful manner imaginable. In one particularly memorable conversation, he tells her, "The more advertising I see, the less I want to buy..." Sounds simple, but taken in context of the moment, it unfolds like a rose, with just as many layers of beauty. The freedom of parrots, a pyramid-shaped head on a South American shaman, Matisse's Blue Nude revealed, Finnegan's Wake, government intelligence policies, the art of stilt walking, renegade nuns and the price we fear we must pay for enlightenment...all these seemingly disparate concepts are not only brought together as a whole, but seamlessly dovetailed to offer an enchanting glimpse of one individual celebrating who-he-really-is by realising that the only price to pay for joy is letting go of fear.

Expands your imagination in every possible way.